The Holdovers perfectly balances cynicism and sentimentality through a multi generation trio of broken humans. Drenched in 70’s aesthetic from its very opening scene, The Holdovers is a callback to the film of the past full of timeless discussions towards mental health and life. Offscreen Central had the opportunity to speak with Oscar Nominated Editor, Kevin Tent, about his long-time collaboration with Alexander Payne, crafting three storylines through the edit, and the iconic dissolves sewn throughout the film.

Jillian Chilingerian: Congratulations on the nomination. I love it when you get fun nominations thrown in for editing.
Kevin Tent: It’s really something else. It’s really surprising and it’s a big honor. It just feels great.

Jillian Chilingerian: Watching this film, the title cards come up with vintage logos you’re like, oh, this kind of feels like it’s a film from the 70s that we uncovered, to show in 2023. It is very committed to the 70s aesthetic, not just taking place in the 70s. From your role, how was it to approach and create that essence and that flow?
Kevin Tent: It is a combination of a lot of things, but that is exactly what Alexander wanted to present. He wanted to feel like a film that had been sealed up in a vault that hadn’t been seen since the 70s. We had a great title designer, name is Nate Carlson. He’s been working on Alexander’s films like me, since Citizen Ruth, he would do all the graphics and stuff. He came up with those logos for both Miramax and Focus and then the actual titles themselves we did how they used to do titles. Mindy Elliot, who was, was an associate editor, got a credit on music supervisors out there as a credit that mixers or sound designers, they’re all front-end credits, which is the way it used to be, they used to be more used to be more free. So we did that, music was a big part of it, too. We had that great song from Damien, which is just a gorgeous song contemporary song but sounds very seventies. It all kind of came together and then just the feeling of the snow and the kids, it came together organically in a lot of ways.

Jillian Chilingerian: The opening montage introduces us to Barton again, it feels like we’re entering this world that we’re going to spend X amount of time with and getting familiar with the surroundings. We start with the choir, and we end up in the principal’s office. With moontages of like I am always curious about selecting those scenes and making its own story before the story begins.
Kevin Tent: That’s like a big, huge prequel because we’re getting introduced to the characters, each one, but it’s like one title sequence that ties it all together. The idea was, and hopefully, it sounds like it was working that it doesn’t feel like the movie starts until you get to the principal’s office. And that again, was kinda organic, the way it came, I mean, we knew we would probably have a title sequence and Alexander had shot that acquire. He had intended just to use the audio, and then he said he, they’re getting ready to do it. And he said, well, let’s just put the camera up here and get it. And, when it came into the cutting room, I was like, well, it’s not long enough for it to sequence like what do you got planned? He goes, I don’t know, well you know, we’ll figure something out when we get to the cutting room. So but I love it. It’s one of my favorite title sequences that we’ve done in a long time. And we’ve done some good ones. Because it does have these different peaks and valleys that are that are happening even it’s all part of this one big title sequence and then and then the movie starts so that was that was fun that we just kind of did that in the cutting room. That kind of just happened.
Jillian Chilingerian: I love all these just natural occurrences that are happening.
Kevin Tent: All the pieces are there, but you don’t know how it’s going to be. It wasn’t like planned out like it wasn’t storyboarded the choir is going to go here and then this is going to happen. We just had all these shots and started introducing our characters.

Jillian Chilingerian: You and Alexander have worked together multiple times, so as you are getting the script like, at what point do you join? How do you digest what those scripts are, and then prepare yourself to do your job?
Kevin Tent: The way we’ve worked over the years is that when he’s serious about a project this might be a year before it happens. He will send me the script, and on The Holdovers, he gave me the first 45 pages, he was kind of getting excited about it and he said, What do you think of this idea? I can’t remember if it had gotten to where the boys left, but the setup was all there. When he gets serious, and he has drafts, I’ll give him my notes on things that I thought here’s my feeling about this, maybe this is something we’ll look at, this is a little long, can this happen sooner, I give him those kinds of comments. Sometimes you can do something about it if he agrees and other times he’ll just go with his gut and shoot stuff, knowing that maybe we’ll tighten it up later figured out in the cutting room. I start cutting the day after they start shooting, I get dailies, and I start watching the dailies every morning, and then I start cutting and, you know, send them scenes during the week, at the end of the week. I usually send them on Friday night, I’ll show him all the scenes that I’ve cut. Sometimes he watches them, sometimes he doesn’t, but we talk every day.
Jillian Chilingerian: The dynamics between directors and editors who have like worked for so long together and the unspoken languages that they have.
Kevin Tent: The performances were already good. I was like, wow, this is gonna be great. When he comes into the cutting room, we start from scratch, we start going through the dailies all over again, watching them and we create a cross between an editor’s assembly and a Director’s Cut. Not as good as a final Director’s Cut and not as bad as the editor’s assembly. It’s like a combo and then we start working off that we create our cut.

Jillian Chilingerian: Well going into that of seeing the daily footage and stuff, this film has three incredible performances. From your point of view when you’re getting that footage and you’ve read the script, they all have their storylines that are also merged. They’re all broken people and it is multi-generational of Paul being the most extreme and then it’s like Angus is the most new. Making sure everyone has that space to breathe and transform because, at the end of the film, we have a lot of character growth. How do you track that to make sure that pacing is right for everyone?
Kevin Tent: I wish I could take personal credit for all that but I wouldn’t be fair so much of it is a screenplay and exactly what you’re saying we are doing everything in the cutting room to make sure that these things are balanced and happening soon enough so that people don’t disengage and get bored and or walk out of the theater, but the screenplay I just love it like I love how you just find out about Paul’s backstory so slowly and usually the thinking it seems is always like oh, put all the setup in the first 30 minutes so that you know then the audience knows everything and they can just you watch the movie but I think that gets boring. In The Holdovers, you learn little snippets of Paul’s background. Oh, he ran away from home. Okay, went to the Barton. Okay, got a scholarship, Oh, he went to Harvard. Oh, his father beat him and that’s how we wound up where he is that great character built into the screenplay. I don’t want to sell ourselves short in the cutting room because we do everything we can to make sure that all these balls are in the air evenly and the characters get their fair share of screen time.

Jillian Chilingerian: I love the slow unravels, because sometimes you watch movies and you, you can tap out at certain points, but you’re waiting to figure out more about these characters. When we go to Boston, there is the through line of the emotional core, but it also like, feels like a fresh take on their dynamic. I am curious if you saw the film in two parts of them at the school and in the real world.
Kevin Tent: I guess we did. I think it’s because there’s been this claustrophobic feeling for the first half of that film, although they go to the party and all that stuff. But they’ve been stuck at that school and I think it’s a big release for you in the audience that. I think that makes it feel like we paced up a lot and maybe there’s a lot more going on.

Jillian Chilingerian: The dissolves used here I feel so unique. It is effective in letting us linger with different moments, but like for not too long, either.
Kevin Tent: Well, I’ve used them since day one. We use them in Citizen Ruth, About Schmidt, and Election, so we’ve always used them but people have been noticing them or making a point of them this time around. There are just some really beautiful ones, and they’re all kind of made up in the cutting room. There weren’t any designs this all sometimes we’ve even done that but, we were just lucky after Dom sees his dad, his performance is so good there and then we dissolve him in that car driving to the restaurant. His performance is so strong there and it’s a beautiful dissolve but just kind of the way the colors, we lined up his eyes a little bit. Some of them are sad for some reason.
Jillian Chilingerian: At those points in the movie, I felt the most emotional. I wonder why that is evoking that feeling and I think it’s exactly what you said of how it’s used.
Kevin Tent: They’re just gorgeous. They’re just beautiful and you get multiple images at once.

Jillian Chilingerian: This film is going to be a Christmas classic, which I kind of love. In that sense, it does balance being super sentimental, but still having like, the sarcasm and cynicism in there with these characters. How do you make sure that it doesn’t lean too much? The sentimentality sometimes can be overplayed.
Kevin Tent: Alexander and I have our radar up for anything like that. So if it starts feeling that way, either one of us will jump on it. We were really careful with our performance choices and to make sure that kind of stuff didn’t get in there without being overly emotional.

Jillian Chilingerian: That is how I think of an Alexander Payne movie. One of my favorite sequences is when Angus is running through the halls and he gets hurt and it cuts to them getting in the car. While he is running it also maps out the distance through the school with a sense of control of where you are.
Kevin Tent: What’s great about that scene is that there’s this pent-up anger and frustration with Angus being stuck there. Everyone’s at each other’s throats practically. It is a huge release for the audience. It’s so classic Alexander to where you think something’s going to happen and there’s a twist. The audience all of a sudden gets a big jolt of laughter and they get engaged with what’s going on afterwards.

Jillian Chilingerian: That is how I think of an Alexander Payne movie. One of my favorite sequences is when Angus is running through the halls and he gets hurt and it cuts to them getting in the car. While he is running it also maps out the distance through the school with a sense of control of where you are.
Kevin Tent: What’s great about that scene is that there’s this pent-up anger and frustration with Angus being stuck there. Everyone’s at each other’s throats practically. It is a huge release for the audience. It’s so classic Alexander to where you think something’s going to happen and there’s a twist. The audience all of a sudden gets a big jolt of laughter and they get engaged with what’s going on afterwards.

Jillian Chilingerian: I always wonder with editors, and especially with strong performances, when you’re in the dailies, and you’re seeing them, how do you figure out you know what to cut?
Kevin Tent: It was an embarrassment of riches. You know, Paul, let’s face it, Paul, like I don’t know how many takes I did have him you saying Jesus, maybe we could like eight or nine or 10. We just rolled it and he just did a bunch of them with all different versions, all of them would have been hilarious. Each one of them would have been great, but that’s the one we chose. He was the most horrified at that one, which was also so funny. He gave so many good takes, like the push-ins where Angus first dislocated his shoulder in the gym. He gave us great performances and Dom, they were just so good together. They were amazing.

Jillian Chilingerian: I am still in shock for Dom that’s his debut performance.
Kevin Tent: The take where he’s at the restaurant where he’s talking about his dad. That’s take one. They did three tapes and that’s the first tape. He just just nailed it.
Jillian Chilingerian:I love the physicality of the performance and I couldn’t imagine my first role being against Paul Giamatti. The chemistry and the mixture of the three of them, I can’t imagine a more perfect ensemble for this film.

Jillian Chilingerian: Thank you so much for this time. I just love the whole, like 70s aesthetic. Congratulations again, I love when we see an editing nomination like this because it’s usually the big films always overtake and it’s like when we get films like this in there I get so excited.
Kevin Tent: Oh, thank you. So nice. That’s lovely. Lovely. Well, thanks. I’m so glad you enjoyed it.

The Holdovers is currently streaming on Peacock and back in select theaters.
You can read our review of The Holdovers here.